Canons. BOOK OF, in Scottish ecclesiastical history, a code of canons or rules for the Church of Scotland, prepared by the Scottish bishops, in obedience to the command of Charles I., revised by Laud, confirmed by letters-patent under the great seal, 23d May 1635, and published at Aberdeen in
1636. It tended much to increase the dissatisfaction prevalent throughout Scotland, which soon broke out so violently. It not only required the most strict adherence to the Liturgy, then not yet published, but enjoined many things concerning ceremonies in worship beyond what Laud had been able to introduce in the Church of England; it also took away the powers of church-courts unless ratified by the bishops, and decreed the penalty of excommunication against all who should deny the government of the church by bishops to be scriptural, whilst its very first canon decreed that penalty against all who should deny the king's supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs.